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Leo Schwartz

@leoschwartz

Senior reporter at Fortune Magazine covering the future of money // Writing Term Sheet on Mondays // Past: @restofworld // leo.schwartz@fortune.com

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Latest posts by Leo Schwartz @leoschwartz

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After Elon Musk’s Boring Co. was cited for serious safety violations, the Nevada governor’s office stepped in. Then someone deleted evidence of that meeting | Fortune A Fortune investigation reveals that Boring Company was able to skirt aggressive penalties after protesting to some of Nevada’s most powerful politicians.

You can read the full investigation with @jessicakmathews.bsky.social here:

fortune.com/2025/11/12/e...

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Boring has never paid a penalty for incidents on its Nevada sites.

For those digging the tunnels, a perceived lack of consequence has sent a clear message: “It seems like people are going to have to die, because they won’t make shit safe for us,” one current employee says.

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

As the fallout from the closed investigation has been quietly playing out behind the scenes, more safety incidents have occurred on Boring project sites in Las Vegas, under what one recently departed employee described as a “cowboy” culture regarding safety protocols

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

The Boring Company’s project, which aims to build an 104-station network of underground tunnels under Las Vegas, is one of several major investments that Elon Musk has made in Nevada, including the $7 billion Tesla Gigafactory

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

The sequence of events raised alarm and has had a chilling effect within Nevada’s safety regulator, and it raises questions about the degree to which a powerful business is able to bend regulatory guardrails to its will and skirt proper oversight

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

At the beginning of that meeting, the citations and fines—among the agency’s largest in a decade and a potential threat to Boring’s plans to build tunnels in other U.S. cities—were summarily rescinded

Soon, something else disappeared: The record of the Governor’s office meeting

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Boring Company was challenging citations from Nevada’s workplace safety regulator blaming it for chemical burns two firefighters had suffered in its tunnels during a training exercise.

By the next afternoon, a group of high-ranking state officials met with Davis, fresh from DOGE

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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🧵On May 28, hours after Nevada’s workplace safety agency served notice of more than $400,000 in fines to Elon Musk’s $5.6 billion tunneling startup the Boring Company, the phone rang at Nevada governor Joe Lombardo’s office.

Boring Co. president Steve Davis was on the line

14.11.2025 18:51 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 2
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Exclusive: Meta in talks to deploy stablecoins three years after giving up on landmark crypto project The social media giant is exploring how to use stablecoins to pay content creators, among other uses, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Scoop: Meta is looking to get back into the stablecoin game 3 years after the failure of Libra/Diem.

Sources told @bdanweiss.bsky.social and me that Meta is holding early discussions with crypto companies about stablecoin integration with a focus on creator payouts.

fortune.com/crypto/2025/...

09.05.2025 12:44 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 2
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A judge denied the prominent short-seller Andrew Left's motion to dismiss an SEC lawsuit against him, which alleged a scheme to defraud his followers by publishing false and misleading statements about his stock recommendations

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

23.04.2025 16:44 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Should be a good time

21.04.2025 16:32 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Gavin Kliger, the DOGE staffer who led layoffs at the CFPB, will have to testify at an April 28 hearing

21.04.2025 16:20 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Trump's knives are out for Jerome Powell, setting up a Supreme Court showdown over the Fed’s independence The Fed is special. Why the Supreme Court may let Trump fire other agency heads—but not Jerome Powell.

Trump keeps threatening to fire Fed chair Jerome Powell — but can he?

I spoke with legal experts to understand the Trump administration's attempt to overturn nearly a century of precedent, and whether the Fed really is special:

fortune.com/article/trum...

21.04.2025 15:07 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Court filings describe DOGE-driven, scream-filled, 36-hour mass layoff scramble at consumer protection agency As the Trump administration seeks to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, employees are fighting back.

Court filings from Friday detail the DOGE-led, 36-hour scramble to conduct mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—an action that a federal judge has temporarily blocked

fortune.com/article/cons...

21.04.2025 14:05 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Trump’s tariffs can be beneficial in the long term but Congress needs a more active role, says top GOP lawmaker As chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Hill is helping shepherd key crypto legislation.

I spoke with House Financial Services chair French Hill about squaring Trump's tariff strategy with his own free trade background, passing crypto legislation, and Congressional resolutions to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

fortune.com/2025/04/16/f...

16.04.2025 13:37 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Donald Trump’s 29-year-old crypto guru lays out the president’s plans for regulating crypto and rolling back a Biden-era crackdown Since his appointment, Bo Hines has become a mini-celebrity in the crypto world—with CEOs, billionaire investors, and lobbyists vying for face time.

@jessicakmathews.bsky.social and I have a new profile of Bo Hines, the 29-year-old heading Trump's sweeping crypto agenda.

We had a chance to interview Hines and review his calendar through FOIA. We also have new details about his deep financial ties to Trump world.

fortune.com/article/dona...

14.04.2025 14:05 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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SEC lawyer heading case on Elon Musk's Twitter acquistion resigns, cites “heartbreaking” decision Robin Andrews led contentious litigation against Musk that was filed shortly before President Trump took office.

Scoop: The lead attorney on the SEC's lawsuit against Elon Musk resigned last week, partly over concerns about how the case would be resolved.

This comes just days after Musk's DOGE entered the SEC:

fortune.com/2025/04/09/s...

09.04.2025 19:45 👍 91 🔁 60 💬 3 📌 6
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SEC lawyer heading case on Elon Musk's Twitter acquistion resigns, cites “heartbreaking” decision Robin Andrews led contentious litigation against Musk that was filed shortly before President Trump took office.

Scoop: The lead attorney on the SEC's lawsuit against Elon Musk resigned last week, partly over concerns about how the case would be resolved.

This comes just days after Musk's DOGE entered the SEC:

fortune.com/2025/04/09/s...

09.04.2025 19:45 👍 91 🔁 60 💬 3 📌 6
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Justice Department scraps crypto unit as Trump further loosens oversight of digital assets The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Unit was established in 2021 and prosecuted major crypto-related felonies.

Big scoop from @bdanweiss.bsky.social: The Department of Justice is disbanding its crypto enforcement unit

fortune.com/crypto/2025/...

08.04.2025 11:51 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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What is Trump really worth? The president is worth at least $4.9 billion, and crypto assets like $TRUMP and World Liberty Financial could add billions more.

Over the past few years, Trump's business empire has dramatically shifted from real estate and licensing to his publicly traded Trump Media shares and crypto holdings. Conflict of interest concerns from his first term look quaint in hindsight.

From the new mag issue:

fortune.com/2025/03/25/t...

25.03.2025 16:13 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Senate poised to advance landmark crypto bill, Warren warns of Elon Musk 'controlling' financial system The Senate is expected to markup a stablecoin bill on Thursday.

As the Senate prepares for a landmark vote on stablecoin legislation, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is circulating a memo laying out risks, from Big Tech control of the financial system to consumer safety:

fortune.com/crypto/2025/...

12.03.2025 16:32 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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The spectacular Synapse collapse: Inside the ugliest divorce in fintech, which left $200 million in customer money frozen Is the failure of this buzzy startup a canary in the coal mine for bigger problems in fintech?

Almost a year ago, the a16z-backed fintech Synapse collapsed, trapping $200 million in customer assets and revealing the wobbly, unregulated infrastructure underlying much of our new financial system.

My investigation w/ @agarfinks.bsky.social on what went wrong:

fortune.com/2025/03/07/s...

10.03.2025 14:25 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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In a win for Silicon Valley, Senate votes to overturn key payments regulation that could benefit Elon Musk’s X The rule was enacted under the Biden administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last November.

The Senate voted tonight to repeal key financial regulation that would have supervised digital payment platforms for fraud, privacy, and, ironically, debanking.

A major win for Silicon Valley and Elon Musk's payment ambitions for X:

fortune.com/2025/03/05/c...

06.03.2025 01:03 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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An OpenAI whistleblower was found dead in his apartment. Now his mother wants answers Why Suchir Balaji’s death has fueled conspiracy theories and unresolved questions.

For @fortune.com, Allie Garfinkle and I have spoken to Balaji's parents, friends, and experts to understand the tragic story and separate truth from conspiracy.

You can read our full story here:

fortune.com/2025/02/08/o...

10.02.2025 15:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

In response to the lawsuit, the city's attorney's office is expected to release a letter as soon as this week, with the police and medical examiner's report expected on the same timeline.

But that might not be enough to quell the concerns

10.02.2025 15:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Her efforts to make sense of the inexplicable tragedy have collided with a teeming online world of conspiracy theories all too eager to latch onto grief and uncertainty. As Ramarao has pushed for answers, a rash of baseless speculation has thrived alongside the proceedings

10.02.2025 15:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Balaji's parents have sued the police department, whose investigation remains open, demanding their full report.

Meanwhile, his mother has taken her limited evidence on a public awareness campaign, including an appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show.

Elon Musk has predictably weighed in

10.02.2025 15:22 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Balaji's death quickly spawned conspiracy theories—the latest whistleblower to die under suspicious circumstances.

He was found with a gunshot wound to the head by his own gun, but his mother hired two experts who pointed out anomalies, including the lack of a suicide note

10.02.2025 15:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Balaji gained public prominence in Oct. when he went to the NYT to argue that the artificial intelligence behemoth was violating fair use laws.

He was scheduled to appear as a witness in the newspaper's landmark lawsuit against OpenAI, though he was not divulging any new information

10.02.2025 15:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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🧵In late November, 26-year-old Suchir Balaji was found dead in his SF apartment. Just a month before, he had gone public with concerns that his former employer, OpenAI, was breaking copyright laws.

While officials deemed his death a suicide, his mother has become convinced he was murdered

10.02.2025 15:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0